I watched The Book of Henry at the weekend. You might've heard of it. Directed by Colin Trevorrow - whose Safety Not Guaranteed I really liked, and whose Jurassic World I liked a bit less - it was mauled by critics.

Coincidentally, or not, the release of the film - and its disastrous box-office haul - was shortly followed by the news that Trevorrow had been replaced as the director of Star Wars Episode 9.

It's a bizarre film. Any individual moment sort of worked, but taken as a whole it was all over the place, lurching from whimsy to darkness from one scene to the next. And with an extremely questionable moment where Sarah Silverman - her bosoms practically spilling out of her top - kisses a 12 year-old boy on the lips as he lays dying in a hospital.

Also all over the place - in a literal sense - was star Naomi Watts as she attempted to "act" playing a video game. You see, in a bid to explain why her character is later able to handle a high-powered sniper rifle (don't ask), she's shown as being hooked on Gears of War.

The way in which she plays Gears is to hold the controller at chest-height, while jabbing at the air with it, swaying from side-to-side as her face twitches with aggressive tics. The only person I've ever seen play a video game like that was my mother, circa 1982, when she attempted to get to grips with Space Invaders on our Atari 2600.

This wrong-headed depiction of video gamery irritated me more than any of the other billions of flaws the movie achieves. In fact, it made me ask this: why can't "other" media do gaming accurately?

ALIENSWaaaay back when I used to write for My Parents Are Aliens, I wrote an episode in which a character had to play a video game.

I thought I'd written a pretty believable scene, but when I saw the finished episode I was horrified that the character in question had been given an old-school, Amiga-style, joystick - of the sort which nobody uses anymore unless they're playing a flight simulator on the PC - rather than the joypad I'd specifically referred to in the script.

The next time I put video games in an episode of something I'd written, I made sure it was a dancing game which didn't require any controllers, and effectively wrote an essay in the stage directions explaining exactly what I wanted to see on screen.

My Parents Are Aliens was the first time I realised that TV and film people rarely get gaming right, or rarely, properly, understand gaming culture.

Shows like The Big Bang Theory might name-drop gaming things, but it still feels like its the butt of the jokes. Rick and Morty - though in the midst of a bit of a backlash due to dickishness of its fans - seems to get it right. The Simpsons have sort of managed it, on and off, over the years (though I always find it jarring when that show refers to anything post-2003).

Generally, though, gaming seems to occupy a strange place in on-screen fiction. It's used, more often than not, as a way to make something feel contemporary, but the way its portrayed is typically anything but. It's like if I tried to write something about, I dunno, angling without having ever gone fishing (which I never have done).

MISUNDERSTOODI guess it always surprises me when other media gets gaming so wrong. From where I'm sat, games seem like the mainstream now. They seem like something that everybody does - or at least has more than a passing knowledge of - so it really jars when I see something like that Book of Henry scene.

But what I suppose this reveals is that not everyone gets games yet, that there's a massive chunk of the populace - certainly more in creative industries than you'd expect - which has no real first-hand knowledge of what gaming really is.

In The Book of Henry Naomi Watts' character is shown as a gamer because she's meant to be a bit quirky (certainly, the way she plays games is "quirky"), rather than it feel like a natural part of her character. I mean, there are plenty of middle-aged women who play video games, but that isn't how they use it in the film.

In fact, it's rarely how it's used in film - and more often than not when I see a game shown in a movie or TV show it feels like it's someone's idea of how people play games, or it's a way to make the creators look as if they understand youth culture.

For every Scott Pilgrim we get a Kevin Spacey in House of Cards attempts to play Killzone 3 while clearly having never picked up a games controller in his life. For every Wreck-It Ralph there's a Seth Rogen - someone you'd expect to know how to play games - jabbing at his controller buttons in The 40 Year-Old Virgin like he's impatiently calling a lift.

It's just rubbish, but it's also indicative, to a degree, of how we - as gamers - still exist in a sort of bubble, where gaming is normal. Everyone on the outside still doesn't get it yet.

Yeah. It’s strange that gaming remains so obscure. I think a couple of factors are at play?

First is ‘Big Bang Theory’ syndrome, ie. the perception that that’s what gaming is like: big joysticks and games which turn players into slavering maniacs.

Second: does copyright have something to do with it? Same as how they never used to show Windows or MacOS on computers on TV, the design of joypads being proprietary and so on. At the same time, you’d think the big gaming companies would be climbing over each other to get their hardware (and software) on TV.

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MENTALIST

11/10/2017 12:41:56 pm

I used to watch The Big Bang theory in its earlier days, when it was fairly decent, before it got lazier and blander and duller until for me it became unwatchable (round about Howard and Bernadette's wedding).

But anyway, early on there was an episode subplot that involved them all playing Halo. I couldn't help but notice, that the lads were pantomiming playing a video game reasonably well, but Kaley Cuoco was spasmodically button mashing in a ludicrous fashion.

The joke / point of conflict / whatever was supposed to be that she was preternaturally good at it. I was not convinced.

Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd37YLDWv28

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RichardM

11/10/2017 01:07:01 pm

Man, the laughter track... That is an unreal level of hooting and guffawing. Anyway.

I wonder why they don’t just play the game a bit, which they obviously aren’t doing? It’s not like we can actually see what’s on the screen and would add verisimilitude. Would happily be a videogames consultant to the mainstream media. A bit like the doctors who get paid to make Casualty more harrowing, yeah?

Spiney O’Sullivan

11/10/2017 07:15:05 pm

Anything I’ve seen from them from Footage at cons suggests that the actors wouldn’t really even play games. Because, you know, they’re actually actors and are just paid to play nerds. They’re hilariously out of their depth when people ask questions about nerd things.

(Granted that was a while ago, maybe it’s changed since)

Jareth Smith

11/10/2017 09:55:56 am

Yeah, gaming is more mainstream but there are still a huge amount of people clueless about that. For those on the outside, after an initial appraisal, will appear like idiotic experiences filled with juvenile violence and idiots having raging arguments about pathetic and irrelevant things. You have to agree with them, to some extent. I still remember seeing that 0/10 review on Metacritic with the guy writing "Nintendards must die of brain cancer". If that's the way a huge proportion of gamers represent the industry, then that's how it will be viewed... not at all helped along by the perpetual stream of CoD and GTA clones, of course, and appalling video game scripts.

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Troubez

11/10/2017 10:30:52 am

How about the gamers that perpetually air the same vague complaint, in the same wording, in every post? Might make gamers seem like small-minded, brand-loyal, unhealthily-obsessed anorak-style nerds from the 90s to most folk...

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Jareth Smith

11/10/2017 10:36:08 am

The only way to alter the central issue, dear, is to challenge it.

"Might make gamers seem like small-minded, brand-loyal, unhealthily-obsessed anorak-style nerds from the 90s to most folk..." - If you're vacuous then, yes, it may do, but that's your problem. No one, once, has been able to challenge the pertinent assessments I've made, it's simply been a merry-go-round of caustic remarks, ad hominem, and avoiding dealing with what I'm writing. If this is the approach you want to continue taking then you've already lost.

Meanwhile Mr. Biffo has made similar pertinent assessments, just yesterday, in fact, and elsewhere in Edge Magazine about the tedious state of affairs with analogous games and their pernicious approach to telling a story. Yet he's met with, most of the time, considered responses, which merely highlights you're the very intemperate problem you think you're dealing with here.

Caress Smith

11/10/2017 11:02:12 am

Leaving a comment on a website that you yourself acknowledge (in the same post) largely aligns with your narrow view: congrats on 'challenging' the 'central issue', you rabble-rouser you.

It's always amusing how the same words get trotted out by you whenever you are challenged, even jokingly. I suppose those are the words that you presume project an air of authority - leading with "dear", then "vacuous", "Caustic", "pertinent"-in every one of all your replies. Why do you continually go to these words? Is repeating yourself just something you do?

I'm sure nobody has responded in a manner that you think constitutes a valid argument, as I wouldn't trust you to recognize one: there's been many, you normally just stop responding, having found repeating your favourite sentence not enough to stand up to discussion. Mostly for this reason, people have long ago stopped addressing what you are saying, because the way in which you say it, and your insistence on sticking with it, makes you seem, frankly, below concern.

PeskyFletch

11/10/2017 01:24:07 pm

In fairness Jareth people did origininally try and debate you (not me, i only leave short ,glib remarks due to laziness) but the fact that you make the same remarks on a lot of posts mean that people have given up trying to debate you and do just tend to make with the "funnies" at you. If you're sick of the same comments, may i suggest you just vary up your posts a bit?

"Narrow view"? Hardly. 99% of AAA games are a joke - an embarrassment for the industry, whilst indie games provide astonishing innovation and runs rings around colossal budget, polished, but inept romp alongs which serve only juvenile minds eager for HD graphics and what they believe to be a "plot". I suppose this is why you're so upset by my discerning assessments. :o)

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Caress smith

11/10/2017 11:52:19 am

Once again, addressing absolutely nothing in any kind of response you get, this time even arbitrarily waving it away as a 'non response' (see: difficult for you to respond to) so that you are free to repeat the same tired rhetoric AGAIN - exactly the scenario mapped out in my post. The lack of self-awareness really is staggering.

If you want to just repeat the same thing again and again and not participate in feedback, you can just type/talk to yourself, and save us the inconvenience of your presence.

Jorth Smuth

11/10/2017 11:55:00 am

But GTA and COD clones, my caustically vacuous dear.

Jim

12/10/2017 02:27:07 pm

Lots of indie games are terrible, like a huge amount, and many many clone, yes there are loads of great ones though.
Do you really think 99 percent of AAA games are a joke? Such an odd opinion. There are plenty of great ones as well. Seems like you need a donut.

Jareth Smith

11/10/2017 11:59:41 am

Caress smith - Your hypocrisy is soaring way over your head, dear. I recommend you have a cup of tea and a rest to calm down. On future posts, perhaps try and muster a proper response, then you will be treated accordingly. Working yourself into a rage does nobody any favours. All the best! x

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Jareth's dad

11/10/2017 12:30:30 pm

Oh dear Jareth, the old 'u mad' eh? The true sign of a defeated man with no defense.

Caress has a point, what do you get out of commenting here? You don't seem to enjoy it. Are you contracted to use the repeated words in your posts a certain amount of times per day?

Jareth’s mum

11/10/2017 01:01:39 pm

@Jareth’s dad: where did we go wrong?

Jol

11/10/2017 01:07:51 pm

Oh lordy, here we go again. Can't you just agree to disagree and spare us the circular arguments and condescension?

Jim

12/10/2017 02:31:50 pm

Why does even the most basic of online social interaction devolve into shit like this, it's so odd. Ive always liked the comment section on biffos website, but you guys are pooing on it with poo words. BTW I say 'guys', it could just be one person, but it's hard to be arsed to read the comments in enough depth.

Spiney O’Sullivan

11/10/2017 10:04:01 am

Rick and Morty. What happened there?

The fans of that are rapidly becoming the most cringeworthy and annoying fanbase out there. And I’m saying this as someone who still kind of likes Sonic The Hedgehog.

Perhaps the line between “acknowledged” and “hideously over-exposed” is terrifyingingly thin thanks to the internet. I must admit, when I saw that Polygon article on Found Footage, I was a little selfishly concerned that it might attract the more annoying parts of the internet too, as anything does when it becomes popular.

On the one hand, I do want more people to see it, and have encouraged/forced friends to watch Swan Paint or Goujon Jon. On the other, I hope that teenagers don’t end up pointing cameras at themselves while lip-syncing to sped-up DJ Trendy Peanut quotes.

(PS speaking of that Polygon article, I miss the rawness of old Charlie Brooker. I know he’s happier, healthier and more famous now, but man, old Screen Burn was great...)

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Biscuits the character

11/10/2017 10:28:51 am

Rick and Morty is still an amazing show, the last season was the best one yet. Someone left a great comment about this elsewhere, the gist of which was 'This doesn't affect my opinion of a superb show at all, as the actions of the fans are not reflective of the show. It does reflect badly on humanity however, and my opinion of that just took another hit.'

I have to wonder if the same would have happened were they handing our Rick and Morty books at a library, or if they were giving out Rick and Morty pencils or something. I think the product itself has as much of a detrimental effect as the promotion: If you're the kind of mouth breather to actually take a joke in a cartoon as a real recommendation of a sauce from 20 years ago that you just have to try, chances are you were going to McDonalds already

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Spiney O’Sullivan

11/10/2017 10:56:41 am

It’s difficult, as the show itself is still excellent, but if the general perception of the show’s viewers gets overtaken by “those” fans, it’s going to get harder to admit to watching it for fear of being lumped in with them. Just like with playing Sonic games.

As for the product, sadly, I suspect that even with different products, we’d just end up with the same thing if the show made enough of a thing of it. We’d just see queues at Ryman’s and Waterstones yelling “I’M PENCIL RICK!” or “BOOKALUBBADUBDUB!”

Biscuits

11/10/2017 11:17:38 am

I know what you mean, but I'm not going to stop going to bat for Rick and Morty because it is frequently amazing. If it was just good, or just something to watch, I would probably stop proclaiming my love of the show. It's frequently pushing boundaries though.

I think in cases like this you just have to shrug and assume the person you are speaking to has the awareness not to assume all the fans of one show are the same, or to actually judge the show itself on it's merits. If they don't have that kind of awareness, does it matter? I reckon in different circumstances they'd be the ones yelling at Asda workers for limited edition Bake Off eggs or something

Biscuits the character

11/10/2017 10:12:39 am

Please accept this unjustifiably condescending post from someone with 0 experience in the industry:

Seth Rogan actually does play games, he has even participated in AGDQ iirc. The reason he was just jabbing at the buttons on a controller is because that scene needed to portray 'Hank is furiously involved in a video game', (perhaps to show that he is not paying attention to someone, or to broadcast that he is still overly concerned with childish pursuits), rather than 'Hank is making Samus fire three missiles' (who cares, what would it portray?)

I'm an illustrator, and it annoys the fuck out of me when they show a 'kid's' picture in a movie, and it was clearly drawn by an adult in a laughably unconvincing sketchy style - the proportions, expression, composition etc. is all spot-on, they have just made some of the lines a bit scrappy. Again though, the intent of this is to show the audience 'the kid has seen something scary' in the clearest way possible, not 'the kid has just discovered Crayolas and is starting to grasp the basics of anatomy'; It doesn't serve the story.

There's a frightening amount of dullards out there that hate it when guns don't fire properly in movies. While I can see a revolver that fires like a machine gun could be problematic, if a gun makes the wrong sound or something, who cares? The idea is 'this thing was pointed at someone and that someone then died.'

In the movie above, which I have never heard of and going by the title thought was a Biffo joke, it is more of a problem as it risibly uses the characters interests in video games as justification for her skill with a rifle. Putting aside the fact that that is a very misguided claim (as playing GoW has 0 relevance to using a sniper rifle IRL), they should, in this case, have tried to make it right: the intended message is meant to be 'this person knows a lot about video games', and it isn't.

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DEAN

11/10/2017 10:53:20 am

I wouldn't go so far as to say it bothered me but I get your point.

I play guitar and when I was an insufferable teenager, I played the guitar ALL THE TIME. I remember sitting in the back of the car going to Scotland (from Devon) with a guitar on my lap and a little headphone amp thingy so that I could ROCK THE FUCKING JAMS on a tour all the way up the country.

You see all kinds of people pretend to play the guitar and they actually look worse if they do it accurately... looks a bit creepy, tbh. Not saying actually playing guitar looks creepy, though!

When Guitar Hero was a thing I loved it - it was like my 2 favouritist things had done love child. Sure, it bore little resemblance to playing a guitar but it was a lot of fun and if you had mates around it was a blast.
All except for a snobby bandmate (or 2) that thought it was shit and unrealistic - counter intuitive, one brazen idiot remarked!

Jimmy Page once said in an interview that Zep songs didn't appear in those games because he felt that those games would neither aid nor encourage kids to make music - by demerit of making it too easy.
I didn't agree with him and my take was that exposing da kids to classic tunes would make them want to be in an actual band even more. But, you know - whatever, Jimmy.

You mentioned Kevin Smith! I used to love that guy (he's a holy man now, dontchaknow) and I remember reading about his stint writing Green Arrow. He explained how he had archery lessons so that he'd understand how it worked, what it felt like etc. Good on him!
I think that kind of thing is fairly de rigueur (or bloody well should be) and yeah, it's about time they included video gaming in those classes.

So yeah: YEAH!

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Spiney O’Sullivan

11/10/2017 11:01:35 am

Page is simply being a bit of an elitist. There’s plenty of people who’d never even think they could pick up an instrument if not for those games, myself included. Now I probably play guitar more than games.

Guitar Hero got played out as Activision started catering to the hardcore crowd then had to backpeddle, but I still think it’s amazing.

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DEAN

11/10/2017 11:09:59 am

He is old, though. And likes money, I'd wager! Maybe he was holding out for the jackpot. I mean it would be reasonable for him to think that you can't represent rock and roll without the mighty Zeppelin!
Shame though cos WOW it would have been cool to play those songs on it. KASHMIR on Rock band.... that'd be outta sight!

I bought Guitar Hero and Rock Band when they tried to make a come back a couple of years ago. Didn't like most of the music and therefore didn't enjoy either of the games. For shame.

What axe you rockin', Spiney? Electric or acoustic?

Spiney O’Sullivan

11/10/2017 11:20:09 am

Both, and a bass!

Nothing fancy though, just entry level Yamahas (solid brand with decent value for money, if lacking the cool factor of a Gibson or Fender). I’ll save the fancier brands and models for if I actually get good enough to justify it or too rich to care how good I am...

Biscuits Unplugged

11/10/2017 11:27:47 am

One of the best guitars I ever played was a Yamaha Pacifica. I have no idea what made 'her' 'sing' so sweetly, but it was a joy to play. The best acoustic I ever had just said 'Fender' on the headstock and was £60 from Cash Converters

I want a couple of those bizarre looking 90s Japanese guitars, like what King Gizzard play

DEAN

11/10/2017 11:30:34 am

Very cool, mate. Yamaha have always made fine instruments you can't go wrong with. Pacifica; that the one, right?

Do you find as a bass player that you have a tendency to over play? I had a stint as a bass player in a college production and kept getting told off for playing too many notes. It's for people to dance to, yelled the tutor!

I recently built my own guitar... well, sort of. I ordered all the parts (right down to the screws) and had a mate put it all together (despite being an okay guitar player, I'm as cack handed as buggery; you wouldn't want me wielding a drill). All in I spent just over a grand on it which, considering how cool it's turned out, is a bit of a bargain. It's a Telecaster-style guitar and I bought the wooden bits from a place called Warmoth. Worth checking out if only just for fun but be warned, it gets you thinking and with exchange rates being what they are, now is very much not the time.

Spiney O’Sullivan

11/10/2017 11:52:54 am

The electric is indeed a Pacifica! It’s really nice to play, and has a decent bit of range due to having a humbucker as well as regular pickups, which many Strat lookalikes don’t. It’s currently tuned to Drop D, which I have been experimenting with lately for metal reasons (one-finger power chords is the closest thing to Guitar Hero...).

As for the bass, yes, there is a certain drive to play more notes when following guitarists. It just feels like more are needed to add another layer to the sounds. Or maybe I’m simply a terrible narcissist who demands to be heard. I hope not.

Biscuits

11/10/2017 11:57:25 am

Let's see a pic DEAN!

I think a Guitar Hero guitar propped in the corner of a room will be used as a 00s scene setting device by future film and TV fellows

DEAN

11/10/2017 12:13:10 pm

I think being a terrible narcissist is part and parcel of being a rock star, Spiney! Rock on!!!

Biscuits - oh you've gone and done it now: YES, I will send in a picture of my guitar. Expect to see it and a comprehensive break down of why it is my grail axe; my sweet, wooden excalibur. Friday Letters, my man.

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Spiney O’Sullivan

11/10/2017 12:16:58 pm

Careful, if we start a precedent of sending Biffo photos of things that we’ve produced ourselves, who knows what PSB will send...

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DEAN

11/10/2017 12:53:59 pm

An effigy of Mr Biffo hewn from excreta? I'd like to see that!!!

Like Morph but wet.

Biscuits

11/10/2017 12:50:37 pm

Can't wait! In a collage if you have the time please

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DEAN

11/10/2017 12:58:20 pm

You're an enabler, Biscuits. And this is why I love you.

Leave it with me!

I have produced an amazing number of collages for submission this week. And, what's more, I've gone in a different direction with them; more appropriate and I can't wait to share them :O)

Biscuits

11/10/2017 02:33:08 pm

Wow! I'm on 'tenterhooks', whatever they are

MENTALIST

11/10/2017 01:24:14 pm

Actually, the most recent fictional depiction of gaming in TV comedy was this pretty much tone-perfect parody of Youtuber DanTDM playing flash games, like he does, on Horrible Histories, like last week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB-AFU0uP0A

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John Veness

11/10/2017 01:44:42 pm

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost played games convincingly on Spaced and Shaun of the Dead. They are gamers in real life, which helped, but probably also helped that they were acting as people who were supposed to be good at games, unlike how the Seth Rogan situation was described above (I've not seen the film so don't know).

I also thought the games playing in Pudsey The Dog The Movie looked convincing, so directors do treat your material OK sometimes, Mr B! At least George was holding the PS Vita (OLED model I believe) correctly, and the on-screen graphics looked right - I couldn't work out if they were an existing game or something made just for the movie? The sound effects were a little retro, but that seems to be quite common.

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Col. Asdasd

11/10/2017 03:42:44 pm

The thing I think Spaced really got right was showing some action of the game being played, then the reactions of the people playing it.

This makes a narrative out of the depiction, which is much easier for the audience to relate with than the usual portrayals which only show the player flailing at a turned-away screen.

But then, the act of playing games often isn't *meant* to be relatable. The intent is more usually for the audience to gawp at these freaks involved in their deeply weird and pathetic past-times.

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Spiney O'Sullivan

11/10/2017 04:04:58 pm

Bang on. Wild theorising from here in, but I suspect that for the most part, TV is run by older people, increasingly for old people as the medium loses its younger demographic to a combination of video games, Youtube, and streaming services. Consequently the attitude to video game remains mainly because the producers and their remaining older audiences simply don't understand them, and perhaps in part because they are scared, angered, and confused by them. They just remember them as being those Nintendos that they played Sonic the Hedgehog and Pac-Man on, with the bleep-bloop sounds and the joysticks, so they don't get why they are helping to take the precious male 18-40 demographics away from TV, and have all but decimated the younger viewership.

There are probably plenty of people who actually know about games in the industry, but presumably anyone younger who actually writes the shows isn't involved in the production, or simply can't speak up because media seems to tend to be driven from the top by a small number of people with disproportionate influence.

That said, I have no experience in the media (and am also a bit more down on it this week as Hollywood open secrets are trickling out, only for more to inevitably be ignored in the long run beyond this one monster being symbolically dethroned), so if I'm wrong, anyone who actually knows what they're talking about should correct me.

Simon Pegg

11/10/2017 04:43:04 pm

If you're thinking of the episode I'm thinking of, the content of the game was also very important

PeskyFletch

12/10/2017 02:02:08 pm

Simon Pegg (if that is your real name;seems like a coincidence)
It was important in all three (IIRC) of the episodes where it was shown. There was the tekken match acting as a metaphor for tim and daisy arguing, Repeatedly drowning Lara Croft to shw Tim's fed upness with the fairer sex(this also became a plot point when Marsha thought tim shouting at lara was him shouting at daisy( on the rare occasions i have to castigate my partner i now do it by shouting "YOU CAN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT, YOU BIG TITTED BITCH") and then , obviously, the RE2 one. Sorry to go on, but i loves me some spaced

PS1Snake

11/10/2017 06:03:05 pm

I don't think ignorance is the reason behind why videogame-playing is poorly depicted in film and TV.Instead, it's a reflection of the contempt that many still have for the hobby. All an actor has to do to accurately depict realistic joypad operation is make fewer, more delicate movements on the pad; it actually requires less acting than the frantic, mindless button-bashing that we invariably see on screen.

I think the reason we continue to see these unrealistic depications (despite videogames going mainstream) is because the people writing and directing such scenes deliberately still look down on gaming as a waste-of-time hobby for children and socially-inept adults. I am reminded of the 8-bit sound effects of bombs exploding and lasers firing that often accompany a scene where a character is clearly playing a PS4 or Xbox One. The use of such sound effects reinforces the idea that there's something inherently childish about playing video games.

You don't need to get gaming culture to depict a a TV character interacting with a joypad in a calm and measured manner. We don't see the characters on Hollyoaks bashing away at their smartphones as if they are playing with a Fisher-Price toy. It's only gaming that seems to invite this type of OTT acting and it's because gaming is still viewed by many as a childish, waste-of-time hobby.

Gaming may have gone mainstream, but the negative perception is still the same among many non-gamers, and I don't see that changing primarily because it's a view rooted in contempt.

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Col. Asdasd

11/10/2017 06:53:12 pm

I agree with what both you and Spiney have said about this, both in regard to the people producing old media and much of the audience they can still reach.

What really put a sting in it is that these are often the same people who spend hours and hours pawing at their iphones with whatever Candy Crush reskin happens to be flavour of the week: terrible, terrible games, but no less a part of the medium than Mario or Tekken.

It seems to be a part of a larger societal phenomenon of holding two conflicting ideas simultaneously: that nerd culture and the technology that propels it has widely enriched, and been utterly embraced, by every imaginable demographic in the West (check out those Marvel box office takings), and yet that the only people remotely enthusiastic about said things are the bespectacled and bowtie-wearing hyper-dweebs of yore.

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PS1Snake

11/10/2017 11:32:26 pm

Yeah, the masses have no problem availing themselves of the fruits of nerd culture whether it be in the form of iPhones, home AI assistants or the latest Marvel films.

Gaming has significantly matured through advances in technology (sleeker hardware, increased realism, cinematic storylines etc) , but it hasn't shaken off its "hey, why don't you do something productive?" stigma, and I doubt it ever will.

A genuinely interesting subject. I hear people complaining a lot on how movies got gaming or handled video game adaptation wrong and yet, there are so few articles which really thoughtfully dwell on the subject.

It is amazing that considering how old an activity gaming is, depictions are still usually off. Maybe it is a problem of personal experience or lack thereof. And lack thereof sometimes can be there even if writer, director etc. are indeed gamers. The problem is that to depict gaming accurately you need to be paying attention at a deeper level then most people, noticing details that will make the depiction more plausible. How much people will rutinely stare at other people gaming, paying more attention to the gamer then the game? A few, I'd say.

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Nikki

12/10/2017 09:24:59 pm

I used to know a writer, he had a dozen scripts. Producers beat them up so bad, they ended up in a hospital on Guerrero Street.